DAYTON, Ohio — Trinity Church member John Kelly was surprised to arrive at work Monday and see an email from his boss saying “Come into my office.”

“He sat me down and said, ‘I knew you were religious, but what’s with supporting ISIS?’” Kelly says.

Kelly has led an Iron Sharpens Iron (ISI) group Fridays at lunchtime for eight years at the plastics company where he works. But a co-worker took his most recent flyer from the break room and reported it, thinking Kelly was supporting the northern Iraq-based terrorist group, ISIS.

“I tried to explain that we’re about iron sharpening iron,” Kelly said. “That only made it worse.”

ISI groups around the country are facing new suspicions as the Iraqi terrorist group with similar initials commits atrocities widely seen on the Internet.

In North Carolina, ISI Bible study leader Dewayne Lovett sent out an email inviting people to join his group and immediately heard back from guys saying, “What do you all do, kill journalists?” It didn’t help that one of the people on the email is a former Muslim named Mohammed Al Akbar.

“I like the name ‘Iron Sharpens Iron’ ‘cause it sounds masculine but I guess it’s freaking people out,” says Lovett. “I wonder if I’ll hear from the NSA next.”

In Spokane, where Jerry Nuell leads an ISI group at a coffee shop on Tuesday mornings, some patrons objected to the ISI logo on his Bible study binder.

“One lady thought I was starting a domestic arm of ISIS and no amount of explanation would appease her,” Nuell says. “She pointed her finger at me and said, ‘I always knew you religious radicals would team up — all you Muslims, evangelical Christians and homeschoolers.’”

Nuell’s church is considering changing their ISI groups’ names to “Man Up” for the time being.

“For guys who aren’t sure about studying the Bible anyway, the fact that ISI is one letter away from a crazy terrorist organization doesn’t help,” Nuell’s pastor, Gary Whittaker, says. “We’d rather keep the door open.”

Kelly, who leads the ISI group at work, was allowed to keep his Bible study but is having to do “a little damage control,” he says. “We try to explain to people that we’re not about violence or cutting people’s heads off. We sit around, eat pizza and discuss the book of Proverbs.” •